I suppose I would be far more comfortable if the book was published under an alias. Now it seems to me that Ms Rowling decided to minimize any risk and to capitalize shamelessly on her previous success, selling readers something which is supposedly connected to the HP series but in reality as far away from those books as it can only be.
Only after the lecture of reviews or the book itself you see you have been conned. Had this one been penned by a debut author, without all that glamour of a world-famous name, it would have still been published but I am sure it would have also passed unnoticed and would have been forgotten soon.
By the way would it be such a bad idea to write something new heck, even starting a new series for adults but with fantasy elements included? Do only kids deserve a bit of fun? Taking into account how many mature readers have enjoyed the adventures of Harry and his friends, not to mention his enemies yours truly among them it seems like a completely rhetorical question, right?
Final verdict: A decent novel about contemporary Britain but nothing outstanding you must or should read or you miss out on an important book. I am a reader and I will read what I want to read.
Not something like this one, though. Sep 29, Issy rated it really liked it. This book is utterly heartbreaking, but real, gritty, and slightly sickening. I had no idea what this novel was going to be about when I bought it yesterday. Being 17, I have grown up living and breathing Harry Potter. It is correct to assume that this novel is an utter contrast to the Harry Potter series. But I think it is a most naive error to try to compare the two works.
It goes to JK Rowlings credit that she can produce such varied pieces, and write them so well! I love this novel. I find th This book is utterly heartbreaking, but real, gritty, and slightly sickening. I find that I am attracted to it for the same reasons I am attracted to Steinbeck's novella Of Mice and Men: it is fast paced, never boring, develops characters well, and most importantly regularly sheds truthful insights into the workings of the human mind, and how we perceive life.
Basically, it cuts through the bullshit. It doesn't matter how pretty the prose one may read in a novel today, if you can find a book like this, one that will rip your heart open and expose it for the world to see, making you consider who you are as a person, you are lucky.
Rowling is a brilliant writer, and with such fluency and articulation she shows her characters to be three-dimensional, giving the reader no reason to hate any of them, but no reason to love them either. My favourite character would probably be Krystal, although I grew to love both Tessa Wall and Sukhvinder Jawanda increasingly. Rowling produced such strong characters in these three women, writing them so non-stereotypically, giving them unique viewpoints it's hard to believe that they were strictly fictional.
The only male character I had any fondness towards was Andrew Price and perhaps his poor younger brother. I found them both endearing, and could relate to their struggles.
What I like most about how she wrote her characters was the way she saved judgement; she let readers weigh up each characters strengths and weaknesses, to make a decision on how they felt about them theirselves.
Living on and off in a country town for 10 years, I found that Rowling's portrayal of country life was extremely accurate. The narrow-mindedness that is often expressed, the idea that there is no life that matters outside the town, the loyalty and defensiveness around it, the nosy community, the hunger for gossip, the rebellious adolescents.
In the end, I don't think this book as a particular agenda. I think in its brilliant pages, its sole purpose is to portray life as it is. It's direct truthfulness stuns me. Those who criticise this novel for its 'dark themes' or 'foul language' simply remind me of Howard and Shirley Mollison, who don't believe terrible and dirty things actually happen in their own little universe and if they do, they are more than happy to write them off.
Bad things happen. So do good things. If you're unable to stomach this, and want Harry to defeat dark wizard after dark wizard without failure, this novel isn't for you. If you're able to accept that life isn't always sunshine and lollipops, I guarantee you will be able to relate to, and even enjoy what a thought!
View all 10 comments. I can't lie. That is one seriously disappointing cover. A release date?!?!?!? Enough said. View all 12 comments. My desire to read this book stemmed purely from a love of J. Rowling 's previous work You-Know-What. I knew to expect something different as it was stated categorically that her new book was for adults.
Once the book was out, I heard a number of bad reviews. However I was not disappointed with this book. I can understand the responses because of the theme and some of the scenes are gritty with some unpleasantness, very real-life and honest. In The Casual Vacancy, J. Rowling has made a s My desire to read this book stemmed purely from a love of J. Rowling has made a successful transition to the real-world. Especially when she gets into the minds of 16 years old boys is class. All human traits are here — love, hate, anger, romance, betrayal, envy, jealousy you name it all taking place in the aftermath of the untimely death of a parish councillor.
All of the characters in this book are flawed, some seriously. You will find yourself casting judgement on an individual, only to have your opinion receded by the next chapter. Gritty and controversial themes are explored throughout. This is a great story-telling.
The prejudice, the judging, the conversation behind closed doors, the circumstances surrounding the addiction and poverty and dependencies, all of it, is so spot on. The complicated inter-relationships of small communities, the clash of cultures that is such a feature of the present day life and the pettiness of some of the local politicking, again, J. Rowling does an incredible job describing it all. I also loved the Dickensian approach she made here, of telling the story of a town, rather than a character.
It is a marvelous example of just how good an author she is when she weaves a rich tapestry of characters and situations together in a masterful and undeniably thought-provoking way. Don't pick up this book if you are expecting the same sort of Harry Potter style because it is quite graphic with a lot of swear words.
If you enjoy reading a gritty story with characters anyone can relate to, then this is the book for you. Read it and judge for yourself View all 17 comments. First off, a confession, I was predisposed to not so much like this book.
I had read many positive reviews yes; even so, positive or negative, they all shared a common theme. That is to say lack of plot. This is character development at its finest and even Pagford the community, comes forward in that undertaking. Rowling knows how to set a scene, letting it wash over you warm and slow as you read, and learn more about the people that live within these pages.
The author certainly knew them, each and every one, and then set out to draw us, the reader, a picture. It works. You can step into this story and it all seems so easy, a mere sweep of her pen. Did I have favourites, you bet. They were all ruddy brilliant. It begins with the untimely death of Barry Fairbrother.
We feel it in our gut. Gripped and comfortable with the language, the flow, the pace, the place and the people: comfortable in the claw of a gifted story teller. Beware though, the only magic you will find here lay in the power of each and every word that pulled me forward. I had to remind myself to slow down, to chew, and to savour.
This is the kind of book that wants reading, feet up, in front of a fireplace, with a glass of the good stuff by your side. Come join me. View all 26 comments. Oct 04, Hannah marked it as did-not-finish. I didn't have any giddy expectations for Rowling's first foray into the world of adult fiction, but will admit to being curious as to how she would approach it. Now with 64 pages under my belt, my personal verdict is in: Did not Finish. It's not a badly written book, but what little I read I found dull and pedestrian, which surprised me more then anything given Rowling's richly imaginative mind.
In addition, the crude language seemed more forced then natural, almost as if Rowling needed to drive I didn't have any giddy expectations for Rowling's first foray into the world of adult fiction, but will admit to being curious as to how she would approach it. In addition, the crude language seemed more forced then natural, almost as if Rowling needed to drive home the point that she was writing an A. T piece of fiction rather then have the words make sense within the context of her characters and story if that makes any sense.
And on a purely personal note, I think the inclusion of the c-word in any work of literature not exclusively hard-core erotica is a lame excuse to look edgy. Must be the new buzz word in the literary world, although to me it always denotes a lack of taste and style. My opinion only. You are welcome to disagree, as I'm obviously not the target reading audience for this genre whatever genre this is.
So take these scribblings more as observations then a proper review, and note that I am assigning no rating to it. My overall take on what little I read is that it's probably a so-so book to the right audience when all's said and done, but would never receive the hype it's gotten had John Smith written this and not J.
My only recommendation to anyone fan or not interested in this book would be to test drive it at the library before forking over your hard earned dough for it, and read some of the reviews coming in from readers who actually finished the book. Afterwards, you may find you can't live without it permanently displayed on your bookshelves or e-reader.
If so, good on you. Or you may find yourself bemused by the hype but glad you saved yourself a few dollars.
View all 67 comments. Dec 06, Jane rated it it was amazing Shelves: fiction. Where I got the book: my local library.
It took me a while to decide to read this book; I had really enjoyed the Harry Potter books but would not go so far as to call myself a fan of JK Rowling, and why would I be interested in her as an adult-novel writer anyway? I'd seen a fair amount of negativity on reader loops; people didn't like the swearing, the book was too different from Harry Potter, there were too many characters so the story was confusing, etc.
And then when this novel won the Goodre Where I got the book: my local library. And then when this novel won the Goodreads Choice award for , didn't that just mean that JKR won the popularity contest?
Wasn't I just letting myself in for a disappointment after all the hype? And so on. I take it all back. Let me say three things at the outset: - this novel is officially my Big Surprise Read of ; - it goes on my list of the best novels I've read this year; - and, after all these years, I will now identify myself as a fan of JKR. And one more note: I will not apologize for discussing the Harry Potter series in this review.
I hope I can raise enough points to claim that The Casual Vacancy is completely consistent, artistically, with its much more famous younger cousin. If you're having trouble with this book and you're American, I don't blame you. I've lived here long enough to understand that the dialect, the swearing and the peculiarly English way of viewing class may make this novel difficult to relate to. It's an extremely English work; never, as far as I can recollect, has JKR made any concession to the huge and lucrative market across the Atlantic in her books.
Harry Potter worked in America because it's based in a fantasy England of steam trains, school uniforms, tuck shops, quaint villages and dark, mysterious olde-worlde London. Not many Americans would be familiar with the Enid Blyton stories that provided such a vast pool of inspiration for Harry Potter, but I believe they would instinctively clue into that earlyth-century image of England as what they want England to be, rather than what it is. The Casual Vacancy gets a whole lot closer to real England and therefore loses much of that advantage of instant accessibility.
Well, I'm a great many words into this review and I still haven't said what the book's about. It begins with the sudden death by aneurism of Barry Fairbrother, a Parish Councillor for the small town of Pagford. Parish Councils, for those who don't know, are a basic unit of local government in non-urban England; their powers can have a considerable effect on the infrastructure and life of a country town.
In Pagford, the bone of contention is a low-income housing estate, the Fields, which by historical accident has ended up as a part of middle-class Pagford rather than being absorbed into the more urban conglomerate of Yarvil where, as far as most Pagfordians are concerned, it belongs.
They don't want what they see as a bunch of no-hopers sending their kids to the "good" Pagford schools and consuming an inordinate amount of the available social services and unemployment benefits. A related issue is the survival of the addiction clinic, whose clients frequently come from the Fields; again, why support a service that is a burden on the middle class citizens of Pagford, who are far too upright and clean-living to need such help?
The death of Fairbrother--who grew up in the Fields and was a passionate advocate for its children--leaves a "casual vacancy" on the Parish Council, and the two sides of the debate over the Fields and the clinic muster their candidates.
While the adults in the novel's cast struggle with fitting local politics into their already messy lives, their teenage children have problems of their own. Andrew's home is a nightmare because of his abusive, violent father; Fats's casual cynicism and pursuit of what he perceives as authenticity but most of us will view as shallow "coolness" will have a destructive effect. Sukhvinder struggles with being the only academically weak member of a high-achieving Asian family and the self-loathing brought about by her victimization at the hands of classmates, Gaia is miserably displaced from her London home, and Krystal, who lives in the Fields, struggles to keep her junkie mother clean and look after her little brother.
The plethora of story lines means that JKR has to keep character development on pretty clear and unambiguous lines, so there's not a whole lot of nuance or big surprises in store. Every adult has a predictably messy life and the adults, to my mind, are not as clearly or as sympathetically drawn as the teenagers. The real star of the novel is the underdog Krystal Weedon, half-literate, neglected and abused but determined to make her life better in any way available to her.
Like Harry Potter she's both underdog fighting hero and sacrificial victim; unlike Harry she is, after Fairbrother's death, virtually friendless in a world where there's no magic to be wielded. Out of all the characters I think this is the one that JKR really invests with complexity and pathos, and ironically Krystal, with her near-feral dialect and her f-bombs, will be the least accessible character to many readers.
It's a credit to JKR that she underscores Krystal's personhood and at the same time paints an accurate picture of how the middle-class characters see this courageous, powerless girl as a threat or an object of half-disgusted fascination. In Harry Potter JKR magnifies class conflict into an all-out war between competing factions; in The Casual Vacancy the action is small-scale and the teenagers rebel and protest in very middle-class ways--getting drunk, smoking cigarettes and a little weed, scoping for sexual experience with that laser-like hormonal focus we probably all remember.
The adults in the novel are the ones who do the abstract thinking; the teenagers simply do , and their superior knowledge of computer skills allows them to take part in the parish council election in a retaliatory fashion that's effective because they understand their parents' weakest points and worst hypocrisies.
There's a touch of that role-reversal that we see in Harry Potter and, in fact, in many young-adult stories on TV and in film; the teenagers take control of the adult world from their useless, clueless parents. The wish-fulfillment of the powerless?
Only, in The Casual Vacancy there's no ultimate triumph. Above all I found that JKR's ability to tell a story and imagine a world kept me reading on for page after page when I'd decided I really was only going to read one more chapter.
A few days after finishing the novel I can see the points where I can criticize, but while I was reading it I was spellbound. I've heard that this is the novel JKR really wanted to write and I'll concede that it probably wouldn't have stood a chance of being published back when she was an unknown.
If she had begun her career now, she might have self-published it and achieved a measure of success because it's well written and engaging, but she'd probably have remained an obscure English writer in the realist tradition. Harry Potter has given her the chance to shape herself into, not necessarily Dickens as some of the hype has suggested, but certainly into a powerful force for social criticism in the form of readable, entertaining novels.
There are worse ways of exploiting fame. View all 28 comments. Feb 25, Ahmad Sharabiani rated it liked it Shelves: british , contemporary , adult , literature , 21th-century , fiction , mystery.
The Casual Vacancy, J. Rowling The Casual Vacancy is a novel written by J. The novel is split into seven parts, the first depicting the aftermath of the death of local Pagford Parish Councillor, Barry Fairbrother, who suffers a burst aneurysm in The Casual Vacancy, J.
The novel is split into seven parts, the first depicting the aftermath of the death of local Pagford Parish Councillor, Barry Fairbrother, who suffers a burst aneurysm in the car park of a local golf course. The inhabitants of the town share the news with their friends and relatives and chaos ensues. The problem arises in deciding whether local council estate 'The Fields' should remain as part of Pagford, or instead join the local city of Yarvil, a contentious debate in which Barry Fairbrother was passionately in favour of the former option; his death is seen by many as an opportunity to end the debate once and for all.
View 2 comments. Sep 28, Kara rated it really liked it Shelves: bestseller , big-issues , lit-fiction , owned. Gritty, realistic, layered portrait of a small town in crisis. In the fallout of parish councillor Barry Fairbrother's death, the stories of a diverse cast of unhappy people are woven together: some likeable, most not.
The upcoming election for Barry's empty council seat fuels a sea of pettiness, gossip, and self-interest, and long-simmering resentments come to a head. Let me start off by mentioning, as everyone else has, that this is not Harry Potter. Muggles only. In addition to the conspicuou Gritty, realistic, layered portrait of a small town in crisis. In addition to the conspicuous dearth of wizards, it lacks the kooky charm, sentimentality, and optimism of the other series.
Rowling is pretty unrecognizable. That said, as an adult novel that tackles sobering subjects like drug addiction, child abuse, and rape, it's bound to be a bit denser. I didn't find it as shocking as some people did, though.
Yes, there is profanity. Yes, there is violence. Yes, there is sexuality. But it is never excessive or graphic or gimmicky.
I got the sense that Rowling just wanted a no-holds-barred look at life in Pagford from all angles. Omitting swear words or the more disturbing events would have seemed far less raw and honest. Multiple perspectives can be hard to pull off jarring, choppy, etc , but the transitions are executed smoothly. The realistic, distinctive internal dialogue is the strong point of the novel, creating fully-realized and 3D characters you come to know very well.
But there are also some fundamentally well-intentioned but flawed folks that I enjoyed following around and seeking to understand Andrew, Parminder, Fats, etc. All the characters feel, as Fats would say, authentic. The novel is slow-paced and drags sometimes , but it carries a sort of slow burn. You detect certain tensions building and building and wonder what the culmination of those tensions will mean. Every action has consequences that echo through the rest of the book. Ultimately, it's a fairly dark novel, but all the same, I felt reluctant to let the characters go at the end.
Which is always a good sign. View all 4 comments. Sep 27, J. I admit it! I gave up! Here's why: The reason we're all reading this book is because it says "J. Rowling" on the cover. Associations: Spellbinding plots, humour, strange characters, action, excitement, magic I'm reading it because it's written by J.
And because it's by her, I can't believe I gave up. I feel bad comparing it to Harry Potter, because it's a totally different novel. It's realistic, and set among ordinary people in a sm I admit it! It's realistic, and set among ordinary people in a small English town. It seems unfair to compare it to that world of magic that made her famous. But look at it this way: Would I have bought this book after reading the description if another name was on the cover?
My favorite part of Rowling's writing has always been her humour. Sadly, there's not much of that in this novel. It's dark, dirty and realistic, even though I hesitate to use that last word, because the misery in this novel is, if anything, overdone. It does have a few funny phrases, but it's all pitch-black comedy, and there's not enough of it.
I expected more in terms of language, even though, obviously, her theme is very different from her other work, and I admit I was disappointed. The town of Pagford is a picturesque English village in my mind, much like something out of Midsomer Murders. That would, however, be the wicked, nasty, dark version of Midsomer Murders.
There's heroin, neglected children, abuse, loveless relationships, envy, malice and death. That would be quite alright with me if I hadn't been constantly asking myself "what are you trying to tell me? I didn't come so far as to figure out why she would show me all these different scenes of misery without giving me something more. The book opens with a death, and all the townsfolk are basically overjoyed; some only for the gossip possibilities, and some because they want to take the dead man's place in the community.
At first, I thought of Vernon and Petunia Dursley; nasty, suspicious, close-minded people without a shred of compassion, and I found it promising.
That is, until I found out that absolutely all the characters in this book are like that. Full of anger, spite and envy, only looking out for number one. And that got old awfully fast. Without a Harry, Ron or Hermione to lighten things up, it's all just downright miserable. Frankly, I need a bit of both; I enjoy a balanced plot. I can't help but think "who are you, and what have you done with Jo?!
I know what she's capable of, but you won't find it in this novel. So, I'm going to be unfaithful. It is not a pretty sight or enjoyable experience. It is not meant to be. I responded the same way many readers did by realizing that there isn't a single character that is not deeply flawed, and in many ways, unlikeable.
The one person we would actually like to have as a friend dies at the outset of the book, and even he has imperfect relationships with those closest to him. His presence created equilibrium between warring factions driven by prejudice and mistrust. His death upsets the balance and begins a cascade of events which ends in tragedy. A more hopeful book would have the characters experience epiphanies which would change them internally and the world around them externally.
But this is not a hopeful book. I don't think it was meant to be. The author masterfully weaves the strands of the plot until all the characters have to look at themselves deeply if they are capable of it. Many of them are not, and are not changed by the losses they experience. This is where fantasy and reality collide, good is not going to triumph over evil, and that is depressing and heartbreaking. The point, I believe, is that complex problems do not have easy answers, and sometimes have no answers at all.
The Potter series is about finding the hidden power within you. This book is about the hidden powerlessness we feel as a society when confronted by the fear of those who are not like us. While we have best of intentions, our fear triumphs over our desire to do the right thing. I believe Ms. Rowling's intent was to make us think deeply about intractable problems, and I think she was successful in doing so.
It is not an enjoyable read, but it is an important one. It makes us uncomfortable, this time she didn't want to entertain us with fantasy, but to give us a big dose of reality as seen by a skilled storyteller. Wow this book was hard to finish.
The only likeable charecture dies within the first few paragraphs. Everybody else is so self involved that they can't see the damage they are doing to all those around them. The narration is excellent but does not make up for the general meanness on display here. Also I found some of the charectures motivations to be a little weak. I mean that in a good way. I've never read or seen a Potter, but love witty light Brit lit. This IS a fun listen, though some of the characters and observations are mean-spirited.
This also does a novel's job - observes and comments on the human condition, so although light, it is in the tradition though not same fighting class of a Trollope or Austen - keen observation of daily life beyond the surface, and well-expressed. If you like story-telling and don't need a happy -ever-after resolution, this may be for you. If you like sparse, taught prose and postmodern-y novels, maybe skip it.
I usually avoid novels with adolescent characters and their concerns, but. Sorry if that sounds ageist; I'm a self-absorbed babyboomer - and we're in the novel too.
When I finished listening to this book I immediately wanted to talk about it. My initial feeling was one of bafflement, mostly because, while this book was not what I consider "enjoyable" by most of the definitions I use for that word - I did enjoy it. I tend to be drawn to books that will allow me to disappear into them. I want to escape from reality and inhabit a different world for a while, fall in love, have grand adventures, make new friends.
This was not the book for any of that. Instead The Casual Vacancy keeps you right here in "the real world". More than that, it shines an unforgiving light into all of the dingiest, ugliest, saddest and most tragic corners of the world and introduces you to a whole town full of despicable, ugly and tragic characters and it does it in a gorgeous way.
The world is painted with the skilled brushes of JK Rowlings fantastic command of language and brilliant story-telling. This is the first Tom Hollander narration that I have listened to. I have listened to A Lot of audiobooks though, and have experienced that a narrator can make or break a book in audio format.
I enjoyed Tom Hollander very much. Like the rest of the world, I became a fan of the author through the charming and magical world she created with Harry Potter. Those audiobooks are some of my absolute favorites. I have listened to them over and over - they are a great thing to just throw on when I am bored and have nothing new to listen to. It has been my experience that JK Rowling's books have many and unexpected layers, so I WILL be listening to this book again once it has had a bit more time to digest in my head, though I don't see it going onto my list of often repeated files.
Because I do enjoy that world so much I really wanted to support the author in this newest endeavor. Even so, it was difficult to divorce myself from those preconceived notions and just give this book a shot on it's own merits. There were a few spots in the book where I found myself pulled out of the story a bit by the swearing. I found myself wondering how much of it was necessary to the story and how much of it was an artifice to break from the HP mold.
I do not have an issue with swearing, and it is clear that some measure of it is completely appropriate, and perhaps even necessary to illustrate the world created in The Casual Vacancy. There were still a few spots where it seemed - contrived almost - and reminded me that I was reading a JK Rowling book rather than getting me to forget about the author and immerse into the story.
When she decided to fulfill her dream of writing a "whodunit" as she called it , she decided to use a male pseudonym, thus the author, Robert Galbraith was created. The name was born from her hero, Robert F. Kennedy, and a childhood favorite name of Ella Galbraith. She does not know why that name was so fascinating, but it always was. So, Robert Galbraith it was.
Galbraith wanted to go back to the beginning of a writing career, and wanted to receive honest, non-hyped feedback on her new genre. Now, she still writes as Robert to keep the distinction from her other writing. Her ideas of writing a detective novel correlated with her work on Harry Potter and The Casual Vacancy. There should be clear rules, the detective should always explain the required information for the reader, but always be ahead of the game.
This is a deeply moving book by somebody who understands both human beings and novels very, very deeply. Rowling captures the humanity in everyone, even if that humanity is not always a pretty sight. There were sentences I underlined for the sheer purpose of figuring out how English words could be combined so delightfully The Casual Vacancy is a comedy, but a comedy of the blackest sort, etched with acid and drawn with pitch Rowling proves ever dexterous at launching multiple plot lines that roar along simultaneously, never entangling them except when she means to.
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